Knowledge management in multinational companies: the repatriates’ role in the competitive advantage in subsidiaries

This paper addresses the topic of knowledge management in multinational companies (MNCs). Its purpose is to examine the role of expatriates in knowledge acquisition and transfer within MNCs. Specifically it focuses on knowledge acquisition and transfer from one MNC head office located in Germany to two Portuguese subsidiaries as a basis for competitive advantage in their Portuguese subsidiaries. A qualitative research methodology is used, specifically through an exploratory case study approach, which examines how international assignments are important for the role of expatriates In knowledge acquisition and transfer between foreign head offices and their Portuguese subsidiaries. The data were collected through semi structured interviews to 10 Portuguese repatriates from two Portuguese subsidiaries of one foreign MNC. The findings suggest that the reasons that lead to expatriating employees from Portuguese subsidiaries to foreign head offices are connected to (1) knowledge management strategies to development the subsidiary’s performance; (2) new skills and knowledge acquisition by future team leaders and business/product managers in Portuguese subsidiaries; (3) procuring knowledge, from agents in head office, to be disseminated amongst co-workers in Portuguese subsidiaries; (4) acquiring global management skills, impossible to acquire locally and; (5) developing global projects within MNC. Also our results show that knowledge acquisition and transfer from foreign head office, through subsidiaries’ expatriates, contributes directly to the Portuguese subsidiaries’ innovation, improved performance, competitive advantage and growth in the economic sectors in which they operate. Moreover, evidence reveals that expatriation is seen as a strategy to fulfil some of the main organisational objectives through their expatriates (e.g., create new products and business markets, develop and incorporate new organisational techniques and processes, integrate global teams within multinational corporation with a responsibility on the definition of global objectives). The results obtained suggest that expatriates have a central role in acquiring and transferring strategic knowledge from MNC head office to their subsidiaries located in Portugal. Based on the findings, the paper discusses in detail the main theoretical and managerial implications. Suggestions for further research are also presented. The study’s main limitation is the small size of the sample, but its findings and methodology are quite original and significant.

The role of public policy in health care promotion: a comparative perspective

Comunicação apresentada na 17th International conference on Health Promotio Hospitals and Health Services em Hersonissis, Crete, Grécia de 6-8 de maio de 2009

Gender asymmetries in family and work spheres: strategies and conflicts of qualified women working in portuguese state administration

In Portugal, feminine activity rate of working mother is high but remains structural asymmetries of responsibilities between women and men in familiar spheres. Based on quantitative and qualitative data results are presented that show that, in spite of a global feminization rate of 58,6%, women workers in State Administration remains with major responsibilities in familiar/private lives than men. Women in technical and leadership functions have the same patterns of familiar and domestic responsibilities but different patterns of work-time. Women in technical functions tend to have a strategy of work-family time balance, despite less career opportunities, while women in leadership functions adopt a supremacy of wok-time, just as men. Nevertheless, both women, in technical and leadership functions, feel a permanent conflict between career and family responsibilities, which is not felt by men. Gender roles define dominant models of work and family organisation which conduct to different professional strategies and career opportunities.

Master's in Autonomous Systems: An Overview of the Robotics Curriculum and Outcomes at ISEP, Portugal

Robotics research in Portugal is increasing every year, but few students embrace it as one of their first choices for study. Until recently, job offers for engineers were plentiful, and those looking for a degree in science and technology would avoid areas considered to be demanding, like robotics. At the undergraduate level, robotics programs are still competing for a place in the classical engineering graduate curricula. Innovative and dynamic Master's programs may offer the solution to this gap. The Master's degree in autonomous systems at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), Porto, Portugal, was designed to provide a solid training in robotics and has been showing interesting results, mainly due to differences in course structure and the context in which students are welcomed to study and work.

Effects of a mental health training program on health care worker's knowledge and attitude and practice in Belize

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to assess mental health knowledge, attitude and practices among health care workers in Belize before and immediately after a competency based training program in mental health. A baseline Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) survey was given to health personnel, mainly nurses, working primary and secondary care. The intervention was a 13-week face-to-face training course for health care professionals with the objective of increasing their competency in mental health and reducing stigma. After the training a post intervention KAP survey was conducted among the original respondents. 88 health care workers completed the baseline survey and 61 of those respondents completed the post-intervention questionnaire. The results showed that the level of knowledge of the participants had improved by the training intervention and that in general, the intervention was effective in correcting some misconceptions about mental illness and reducing stigmatizing attitudes among the participants.

Massive Open Online Course management: learning science and engineering through peer-reviewed projects

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are gaining prominence in transversal teaching-learning strategies. However, there are many issues still debated, namely assessment, recognized largely as a cornerstone in Education. The large number of students involved requires a redefinition of strategies that often use approaches based on tasks or challenging projects. In these conditions and due to this approach, assessment is made through peer-reviewed assignments and quizzes online. The peer-reviewed assignments are often based upon sample answers or topics, which guide the student in the task of evaluating peers. This chapter analyzes the grading and evaluation in MOOCs, especially in science and engineering courses, within the context of education and grading methodologies and discusses possible perspectives to pursue grading quality in massive e-learning courses.

Fasciola hepatica IN BOVINES IN BRAZIL: DATA AVAILABILITY AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION

Fasciolosis is a disease of importance for both veterinary and public health. For the first time, georeferenced prevalence data of Fasciola hepatica in bovines were collected and mapped for the Brazilian territory and data availability was discussed. Bovine fasciolosis in Brazil is monitored on a Federal, State and Municipal level, and to improve monitoring it is essential to combine the data collected on these three levels into one dataset. Data were collected for 1032 municipalities where livers were condemned by the Federal Inspection Service (MAPA/SIF) because of the presence of F. hepatica. The information was distributed over 11 states: Espírito Santo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Pará, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and São Paulo. The highest prevalence of fasciolosis was observed in the southern states, with disease clusters along the coast of Paraná and Santa Catarina and in Rio Grande do Sul. Also, temporal variation of the prevalence was observed. The observed prevalence and the kriged prevalence maps presented in this paper can assist both animal and human health workers in estimating the risk of infection in their state or municipality.

Measuring poverty in Portugal: an absolute approach

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Outbreak of laboratory-acquired Brucella abortus in Brazil: a case report

Human brucellosis is an occupational disease affecting workers in slaughterhouses, butcher shops and the milk and dairy product industry as well as individuals who work in clinical or research laboratories. We report the first outbreak of a Brucella abortus infection in a Brazilian laboratory and compare the data obtained with reports available in the literature. Exposure was a result of damage to a biological safety cabinet and failure of the unidirectional airflow ventilation system. An epidemiological investigation identified 3 seroconverted individuals, 1 of whom had clinical manifestations and laboratory results compatible with infection at the time of exposure (n=11; attack rate=9.1%).

Measuring poverty in Portugal: An absolute approach

The aim of this article is to measure poverty in Portugal from an absolute perspective. We estimated several absolute poverty lines and defined maximum and minimum thresholds. We applied aggregation measures to these thresholds and constructed probit models to assess the effect of some variables on poverty. The intervals obtained contain the poverty lines constructed by other approaches. We got evidence that poverty is positively correlated with the number of people in the household, with living alone; negatively correlated with the number of workers in the household, the share on non-food expenditure and the existence of a heating device at home.

Ontology-based representation and generation of workflows for micro-task human-machine computation

Doctoral Program in Computer Science

Interdisciplinary knowledge transfer and technological applications for assessment, strengthening and monitoring of timber structures in Europe

COST (European Co-operation in the field of scientific and technical research) is the longest running framework for research co-operation iri Europe, having been established in 1971 by a Ministerial Conference attended by Ministers for Science and Technology from 19 countries. Today COST is used by the scientific communities of 35 European countries to cooperate in exchanging knowledge and technology developed within research projects supported by national or European funds. The main objective of COST is to contribute to the realization of the European Research Área (ERA) anticipating and complementing the activities of the' Framework Programmes, constituting a "bridge" towards the scientific communities of emerging countries, increasing the mobility of researchers across Europe and fostering the establishment of "Networks of Excelience". Another essential objective is the knowledge transfer between the scientific soc'iety and industry. It is widely acknowledged that European scientific performance in relation to investment in science is excellent but technological and commercial performance has steadily worsened. The present paper discusses how the COST Action's instruments, from training schools to short scientific missions and workshops have been used within The COST ACTION FP11O1 Assessment, Reinforcement and Monitoring of Timber Structures to achieve such objectives.

Nutritional status and food intake at workplace as health indicators for industrial workers

This study aimed to verify the correlation among the nutritional composition of the food consumed in the work environment, the energy expenditure and the nutritional status of workers from different sectors (administration and production) in different industries. The anthropometric data, in addition to the energy expenditure and food intake at lunch were evaluated for 292 workers, all of them included in the Brazilian Worker Food Program (also called PAT). The food consumption was assessed from the direct observation of the meal, for five consecutive days. The obtained data were analyzed by Pearson correlation test and by a Principal Components Analysis. Prevalence of overweight was detected in the studied population, according to the Body Mass Index (BMI). A statistically significant difference was found in terms of the energy expenditure of physical activity and daily energy expenditure in relation to gender and the working sector. The obtained results indicate that there is significant positive correlation (p < 0.01) between the following variables: body weight and BMI (r = 0.84), weight and daily energy expenditure (DEE) (r = 0.52), BMI and DEE (r = 0.27), DEE and energy (r = 0.38), and energy and lipid intake (r = 0.50). These findings seems to indicate the importance of ensuring an adequate balance of nutrients at meals, due to the heterogeneity of workers, in particular in the case of those workers who perform tasks or functions requiring less energy expenditure.

Ergonomic analysis in a food packaging workplace

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) became one of the biggest health problems in the workplace and one of the main concerns of ergonomics and despite all the technical improvements manual handling is still an important risk factor for WMSD. The current study was performed with the main objective of conducting an ergonomic analysis in a workplace that consists in packaging products in a pallet, in a food distribution industry, also called picking. In this perspective, the aim of the study is to identify if the tasks performed by operators present any risk of WMSD and, if so, to suggest proposals for minimizing the associated effort. The methodologies of ergonomic risk assessment that were initially applied were the Risk Reckoner and the Manual Handling Assessment Chart (MAC). Subsequently, in order to, on the one hand, complement the analysis performed using the two methods previously mentioned, and, on the other hand, allow an assessment of two important risk factors associated with this activity (work postures and loads handling), two additional methodologies were also selected: the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation and the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). In all the performed approaches, the tasks of palletizing at lower levels were identified as the ones that most penalize workers in what regards the risk of development of WMSD. All methodologies identified levels of risk that require an immediate or short-term ergonomic intervention, aiming at ensuring the safety and health of workers performing such activity. The implementation of measures designed to eliminate or minimize the risk may involve the allocation of significant human and material resources that is increasingly necessary to manage efficiently. Taking into account the complexity and variability of the developed tasks, it is recommended that such a decision can be preceded by a new study using more accurate risk assessment methodologies, such as those that use monitoring tools.

Environment, health and safety policy in small construction sites: an analysis of the situation in Brazil

This paper analyzes the safety, environmental and occupational health of workers in the small construction industry in Brazil. In this sector there are still many unsafe practices, which are very common in small work sites. We used a qualitative approach to understand these problems by long interviews with people who work directly in small construction sites, including occupational physicians, civil engineers, safety engineers, safety technicians, general foremen, construction workers, labor unionists and auditors. This paper aims to demonstrate that the "invisibility" of the small sites workers makes them less safe and therefore more prone to accidents, also weakening their health. The results show that small constructions workers are less visible to society and supervision because of their short periods of work. Therefore, they are also uncovered to the rigorous applicability of principles of safety and accident prevention. Thus, it has been seen in this field of work a precarious application of NR - 18, which was specifically made for the construction sites and it needs simplification to meet normative characteristics of small construction sites. In the State of Rio de Janeiro, some laws on small sites were recently created and implemented. This study concludes that the rules to work are not being taken as seriously as the legislation determinates, remaining practically unknown by many professionals, from the plot command, supervisors, engineers, architects and technicians who work on construction sites. This ignorance creates space for the lack of safety and consequently to accidents, leading to by weakness in the workers health. Therefore, the work process needs to be modified, the safety regulation must be disseminated through safer practices, promoting employee health and ensure that the work of small sites can be visible, especially ensuring the construction workers health and safety.